


32 "It looks good on you"

by allousive



Series: One Hundred Ways To Say 'I Love You' [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blushing, Domestic, Feelings, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Sharing Clothes, loads of blushing like all my characters do is blush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-20 15:40:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20230273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allousive/pseuds/allousive
Summary: i have such a thing about couples wearing each other’s clothes it’s one of my fave tropes so ofc i had to write it. i’m also just loving writing at the moment so here is yet another Jeddy piece of writing, hope you enjoy x





	32 "It looks good on you"

**Author's Note:**

> i have such a thing about couples wearing each other’s clothes it’s one of my fave tropes so ofc i had to write it. i’m also just loving writing at the moment so here is yet another Jeddy piece of writing, hope you enjoy x

* * *

32 “It looks good on you”

Harry was ready to hand the keys to Grimmauld Place over to Teddy as soon as the boy had turned 18, but it wasn’t until he was 25 that he decided he actually might want to live there. For the past few years he’d been floating around, travelling a bit to begin with and then renting flats around the area close to where the Potter’s lived, but he hadn’t stayed anywhere longer than 6 months. Of course, the house really needing doing up, Harry and Ginny had lived there until just before Albus was born, but that was over 17 years ago and no one had lived in the house since.

Before he’d moved in, with the help of Harry and a lot of the Weasley’s, he’d done most of the clearing by magic. He’d removed paintings from the walls, repaired broken furniture and cleaned up any of the mess. It was liveable, there were just a few things Teddy wanted to do the ‘muggle’ way before he made it his permanent home. 

That was how he found himself, on a Saturday afternoon in August, side by side with James, who had come to help, painting the walls of his new house. They’d had the radio on in the background, Lee Jordan’s voice playing out a quiet tone as they painted and chatted.

“Ted, you know how much easier this would’ve been to do with your wand.” James said, his voice strained as he stretched up to paint a space a bit higher than his actual reach.

“Ah but that’s the point, it would be easier yeah, but it would also be way less rewarding.” Teddy replied, reaching up with ease and painting the area James was trying to reach.

He wasn’t that much taller than James, maybe an inch or two in it, but that small amount was enough for him to annoy the younger of the two. It worked every time, James looking at Teddy with a glare, ‘accidentally’ flicking his paintbrush so some of the paint splashed onto Teddy’s arm. Teddy looked down at the ivory flecks of paint intermingled with the hairs on his arm, then back up at James with a cheeky grin. Much to James’ surprise though, Teddy didn’t flick any paint back at him, just turned around and continued painting.

“Who gives a toss about the reward,” James moaned, “we’re going to be here forever.”

Tutting, Teddy looked at him and said, “You need to learn a few things about hard work you privileged little wizard.”

James rolled his eyes and ignored Teddy, used to his rants about how the wizarding world didn’t understand the concept of working hard, putting in effort and reaping the benefits of the reward.

“Maybe you’ll just have to teach me.” James said, voice lower than it had been a moment ago as he turned to look at Teddy with a coy smile, trying to play it that he didn’t know how his words would be interpreted.

Teddy laughed, only to distract from the way his neck was heating up as he felt the blush crawl up his face. James would surely be the death of him.

Since leaving Hogwarts James had been spending more and more time with Teddy, most of his friends had gone straight into their professions while James was a bit slower, still unsure of what exactly it was he wanted to do. In the time that he’d had off him and Teddy had been getting closer. They’d always gotten along, James having always viewed him as that cool older guy who let you get away with stuff you know the others wouldn’t. But over the last few months their relationship had altered slightly and now James saw him more as his best friend than any kind of relative and whether he wanted that best friend title to be something else was James’ business. Little did he know however, Teddy was looking at him with a pretty similar idea in his head.

“Come on, we’ve done the kitchen, we’re nearly done in here, then we can move onto my bedroom. You helped pick the colour for that room so you have to be excited about it!” Teddy said enthusiastically.

As much as James really wasn’t excited about the colour of paint they were using, the joy on Teddy’s face made it all worth it, so despite the ache in his arms he carried on. The sun was beginning to set by the time they’d finished painting the first coat of paint in Teddy’s bedroom, a dark grey colour called ‘Wolf Bay’ that James had thought was very fitting. Unknown to James, the reason Teddy had let James pick out colours and help him so much was that he hoped James would be spending more time in the house than anyone else, so he wanted the space to feel comfortable and sort of like a home to the other man.

The floor of the master bedroom was covered in a plastic sheet and dotted around the room were paint cans and trays to hold the paint, essentially a tripping hazard for both James and Teddy. Clearly the thought of tripping hadn’t occurred to either of them, as once they’d finished the first coat, James had put his brush down and was beginning to make his way out of the room to go downstairs and get a drink. Not paying attention to what was on the floor around him, he slipped on the plastic sheet and with no furniture around to hold onto and balance himself on, he fell onto the ground, straight into one of the paint trays that was still half full of paint they hadn’t used on the walls.

At first, he didn’t react, in shock at the fact everything had happened so suddenly and now both his hands and the entire front of his t-shirt were covered in dark grey paint. However, it didn’t take long for him to burst into laughter, looking up at Teddy who had remained quiet until he saw James’ reaction, then started laughing himself.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Teddy said through his laughter, each word punctuated by a laugh.

James was laughing too hard to respond, tears streaming down his face, sucking in deep, heavy breaths at every chance he could so he didn’t stop breathing all together. It took a while for them both to calm down, each time they thought they had, one, or both, of them took another look down at James’ t-shirt and started up their laughing again. Once they’d finally managed to reduce the laughter, James wiped the drying tears from his face on his forearm, then looked up at Teddy.

“Will you help me up?” He asked, voice slightly hoarse from laughter.

Still smiling at the whole situation, Teddy complied, holding onto James’ biceps and pulling him up onto his feet.

“I could vanish the paint but you might as well just go and have a shower and wash it all off yourself, I’ll sort your top out.” Teddy said once the other man was standing.

Luckily all the plumbing was sorted so there was running water for James to shower in. While James showered, Teddy took the t-shirt, which James had stripped off and left outside the bathroom door, and rinsed it in the sink. Then he rifled through some of the boxes he’d brought over to see if he had anything for James to put on. Thankfully, in one of the boxes he found an old Hufflepuff shirt, one he’d gotten over 8 years ago when he’d left Hogwarts, that James could wear.

Teddy was downstairs in the kitchen, refilling the sink with water to leave the ruined shirt in to soak. Onever James was finished, the younger of two walked into the kitchen in his sweatpants and Teddy’s faded yellow t-shirt that was definitely a few sizes too big, hair still wet and skin slightly pink as an after effect of the hot shower.

“Thanks for the top.” James said, catching Teddy’s attention and causing the older man to turn around and look at him.

It made Teddy’s heart melt a little, seeing James in his clothes, all worn out and sleepy from a long day. Something in him wanted to rush over and wrap James up in a hug, but he stayed by the sink, where he knew it was safe.

“No problem.” Teddy replied, smiling warmly at him.

“Not sure about the colour though, I’d prefer a nice scarlet red.”

“_It looks good on you_.” Admitted Teddy before he could stop himself.

“You think? Does the yellow bring out my eyes?” James batted his eyelashes dramatically, trying to act dismissive and playful to distract Teddy from the blush that had risen on his cheeks.

“No, it highlights the ginger undertones in your hair.”

While Teddy laughed at his own joke, James scoffed and made his way over to where Teddy was standing at the sink, peering down to see what he was doing.

“I’ll never let it go that you should’ve been in Hufflepuff.” Teddy told him once they’d been quiet for a few moments.

“Yeah? Don’t think I’m daring and brave?” He looked up at Teddy as he said it, eyes full of intent that could have disastrous consequences.

“I think you’re a bit of everything.”

Without thinking, Teddy pressed a gentle kiss to the middle of James’ forehead, a blush on both of their faces to match.

* * *


End file.
